Whole Phamily Features Her Family!

Original content is always coveted...

till now Whole Phamily has been my original ideas, connections, etc...

maybe that's not working.

How about featuring short videos of my family?  Who the heck is interested in that?  I mean, my children's art teacher *did* recently write how wonderful they all are...




And for those of you who didn't catch the "gum gum" reference...
(note;  poor quality, likely not fer realz on YouTube due to copyright issues...

Rachie, I Got a Feelin' We Ain't in Kansas Anymore

This lovely catalog arrived at my Philadelphia suburb door today.  More than a year out of New York City living, and I have never seen Stanley and Saul Zabar looking so geshmak.

From the cover of the Zabars catalog

With all of the stories today of the post-Sandy hard times people are having getting around via mass transit (what?  you're riding around in a Lincoln Town Car?  Escalade?  fuhgetaboutit), I admit I am glad to live in relative ease on the Main Line.  I told my own sister, Reba, just to stay home and don't even consider her 4 hour commute (yes, one-way) from Brooklyn to the Bronx for her pre-grad school course at Lehman College today.

Still, I miss The Big Apple tremendously, and the arrival of this piece of mail from the iconic New York food store brought a huge smile to my face.  I can almost smell the freshly-sliced Jarlsberg.

Times They Are a Changin'

Just read that Fire Island was devasted.  No storm since 1938 has caused more damage than Sandy.  I can't help but think that this hurricane is a reminder that we are in a period of change.  Call it climate change, call it whatever you want.  The times, they are a changin'.

Here is Stango doing a Whole Phamily cover of that iconic tune when we were apple picking a couple of weeks ago.

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter

An industrious Gen-Z-er is liveblogging the hurricane here, where I read a post that Dylan's tune Hurricane is the best hurricane song ever.  Except that it is a protest song, nothing to do with the weather.

Still, check it out. And remember how good we've got it when put in perspective.

Thank you, John Travolta.

In all seriousness, keep safe and sound as we weather what Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy stated tonight as "the largest threat to human life our state has experienced in anyone's lifetime."  I hope and pray for my family who lives there, as well as for everyone in the vicinity of Hurricane Sandy.

And now it's time for some Greased Lightenin'.

Plucked an eyelash from a very unsuspecting place

Due to youthful genes, physical signs of aging have alluded me until very recently.  Until a few months ago when I started conveniently ignoring the eyelash that started to grow from the inner corner of my eye.  You know that place, the place where all the crusty stuff gathers.  But in my aging body, an eyelash decided to grow there.  Every time I looked at it I would say to myself, "say it ain't so!"  But, so it is, and I took out my super duty pointy tweezers, risked poking myself in the eye, and plucked that sucker out.  Good thing my hands are steady.  For now.  Who knows, as I get older maybe I'll develop parkinsonian (PD) tendencies and get the shakes.  Or maybe more eyelashes will grow in more unsuspecting spots.  Or my eyesight will, god forbid, get worse and I won't even be able to see that close up.

I guess it could be a lot worse.  A lot.  At least I have discovered threading.  Now *that* is a godsend!

And so, dear, friends, this reminds me about the crux of it all...if we can't physically be youthful, we can surely embody it in spirit.  The Nunever said to me recently that I am 40 going on 14.  I'll take it!

Naturally I turn to my favorite band which, as the PurpleGirl said in recent memory, makes her feel young when she listens to them.  Couldn't agree more.

"All my vasoconstrictors, they come slowly undone.

Can't this wait 'till I'm old, can't I live while I'm young?"

Click on 1:55 to get to that very youth-inspiring lyric and most excellent energy. 

Good Shabbes!  Lech lecha on tap.

Blackbird Pizzeria: Philly's 1st Vegan Pizza

Why it has taken us more than a year of living in Philadelphia to get to this gem of a restaurant is beyond me. Yet, as I often stress in this teensy corner of the blogosphere, I do believe all in its right time.  Everything happens for a reason and there must be a reason why it has taken us this long.

Coming from a love of Cafe Viva in New York, Blackbird Pizzeria takes the proverbial cake (I mean pie).  Clean.  Delicious.  Eco-friendly (they actually compost their compostable disposable cutlery, cups and plates!).  Nice bathroom.  Soy-free friendly (the vegan cheese used on pizza is scrumptious, even the Wolfman said he couldn't tell the difference except a little bit of texture, AND I can eat it because it is soy-free!).

Did I say delicious?
That everything we ate tonight was delicious?

That everything included:

• Harvest pizza
• plain pizza
• sauteed greens
• full basket hand-cut fries
• creamy sweet potato soup
• root beer bbq wings with pineapple salsa
• mint cream whoopie pie

Did I say the staff was friendly, kind, courteous, patient with our questions regarding soy ingredients?

Just a ditty of other reasons why Blackbird is AMAZEBALLS

• They filter their tap water!  (we're good with plain 'ole, but whoo hoo on the filtering!)
• The whole-wheat crust is tasty, tasty, tasty!
• Ample healthful choices of pizza that even our children loved!
• Amazeballs sauteed greens as a side.
• Even more amazeballs hand-cut fries.  ("Oh, they're just fried in canola oil," said a nice chef.  Just.  JUST.  On this vegetable-oil laden east coast we live in, this is a soy-free mama's dream!)
• It's kosher*!
• They have a washing cup at their sink (for kosher folks this is a huge plus)

*naysayers, feel free to scroll down to the bottom for my comments on that

Can we just order the whole menu please?

Yeah, we'll take that, too.

I know these blurry menu photos don't do it justice, but every.single.thing.on.the.menu is outta this world!

And now at the end of this blog I address you, the Kosher naysayer.  Here's what I got to say, and I put it small because it is not to deter you from eating at Blackbird...a REAL gem of a place that any smart kosher consumer who likes delicious, wholesome, and yes kosher food should patronize:

Stango and I are all good with the "questionable" hashcacha.  Yes, we are well aware that the "IFC" which is what certifies this joint is akin to a mail-order Chinese bride.  Ok, ok, not really.  But you get my point.  No, there is no on-site maschkiach there.  Already we are now way outside the mainstream that we're good with that.  Do I really need to rant on my feelings about the kosher politics out there?  Or should I say politricks?

We need to come together in these dark days, not separate, in order to get towards the light!

The composting of their items is a huge boon on my book...what kosher place have you ever seen that does this?  (I mean, on the east coast, and in the mainstream frum world?)
Of course I believe fully their food is kosher.
The issue of bishul akum, pas yisroel, and insect-checking in vegatables are, well, issues, but that doesn't stop us from eating at Blackbird because, well, because we are very comfortable with the standards held by the proprietors.  We also keep in mind that the frum world at-large has taken on more and more chumras and general stringencies.  


Blackbird Pizzeria

507 South 6th Street  Philadelphia, PA 19147 (215) 625-6660 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            (215) 625-6660      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Utica Club Beer & A Concert

Far from being a beer-lover, I wonder where exactly did my fascination with Utica and its epynomous beer begin?

1999:  When I worked for LexisNexis, I went to Utica, New York for a business trip that included a two-night stay.

Needless to say, the best hotel in town wasn't the Four Seasons.  At the time I wasn't aware of the Matt Brewing Company.

Matt brews the more contemporary Saranac Beer.  I could have gone to the brewery after my work day of training attorneys on executing legal research on a fun brewery tour, but to no avail.

 Instead, I drove out to the local suburb of New Hartford that my mother (who grew up in Syracuse) told me about and found little excitement.  Not much going on in Utica...why I didn't know about Matt Brewing Company then is beyond me!

2000:  Stango and I drove through Utica to enter the Adirondack State Park, and I shopped at a Kmart for a last-minute bathing suit.

2009:  Sat next to a guy at a Phish show wearing an original vintage Utica Club delivery shirt.  Nice specimen!  Thought I might procure a similar one on Ebay, to no avail.  Sadly I didn't take his photo.

2010 (January) The New York Times features Utica's Union Station, which still stands.

2010 (summer):  Meet older gentleman in former community house in town of Bloomingdale, NY who runs antique store.  He grew up in Utica and grew up drinking this beer.

He didn't like big city life and married a girl from the Adirondacks where he raised a family and retired.  He had his wedding ceremony in this community house (looked like an old social hall) 50 years earlier.

2010  (fall):  Phish performs a show in Utica at Utica War Memorial.

 Trey Anastasio mistakenly mentions "Genesse beer factory" which is an old beer from Rochester but meant "Matt Beer Factory" in "Cities"

2011, 2012:  Look in many stores in Adirondacks for Utica Club, to no avail, it is not found.

We bought a Genesse beer instead and I used it in my cholent last week.

I know there is something brewing with Utica Club, I just can't say exactly what!

Indeed, I just learned that.moe, a jam band I have never seen perform, (but have listened to a bit and like) is playing near Utica this weekend, sponsored by the Matt Brewing Company.  Last weekend they played at the brewery itself.

Smith Opera House
82 Seneca Street
Geneva, NY  14456
315-781-LIVE

You can get tickets here

Boobz and The Geek and the Panties

My glorious autumn run the other day through the wooded suburbs of Philadelphia was rudely interrupted by this CD I picked up off the ground entitled "Boobz."

I promptly crushed the CD, symbolically destroying Internet porn that warps healthy images of sexuality.   It's a serious, scary issue, and it's time we get some Internet filters installed at home (no, we don't have any yet!  I know, very very not good!).  But that's my one little contribution towards just saying no to old news:  breasts aren't just for breastfeeding, but when folks call them "boobz" and litter established tree-lined streets with this narishkeit, I draw the line.

The root of it is that (heterosexual) men are fascinated with the female body and will do anything and everything to access a piece of it. 

Case in point, one of my favorite movies, 16 Candles.  If it could only be this "innocent."

My "Me" Book from 1979

I have the best mother.  She saved my 1st grade "Me" book all of these years.  And now it is in my ownership.  The book was a collaboration between my first grade teacher and my art teacher, Mrs. Hollinger.  Myrna Hollinger was a renegade art teacher.  She taught me that coloring books have no place in a child's life.  The facade of her house was covered in all sorts of buttons and pins.  At one point she sold her eclectic upscale jewelry at Neiman's or Barney's.  I last saw her when I was in college and worked at a gourmet food store, back in the nineties when they were still called gourmet food stores.  She bought a ficelle.

Always striving for less-is-more living, currently I am in purge mode (can you say 8 bags to the Junior League thrift shop last week?) so another object, though replete with nostalgia, is exactly what I don't need.

If I only did this for my own children...

I love this connecting of history...my own 5 year old, The Wolfman's Brother, with his mother's creation from 35 years ago

My memory of going to the movie theater with Rachel Rezak, a couple of friends, and her dad, is so sweet.  We went to Mario's for pizza afterwards and everyone was able to get half a can of soda.  You know what?  That's all a child really needs, if any.  But those were the days before we drank water, so I was likely thirsty from the pizza.  We didn't know any better.

The word daven was yet to enter my lexicon.

Gelt.  Now that is a good thing to give kids for Hanukkah gifts.

We used oil with the paint in water to create the paper on which the drawings were glued.